Rafting the Kasilof River

It's pretty warm when the sun is shining. The kids ran around without any pants for awhile.

I even dared dip my feet in... It was so cold it hurt.

Dad finally let TJ take a turn rowing...I'm not allowed to row because I got us stuck on some rocks last time and my husband had to patch the raft. Sad.

Oops, I almost lost my Faith.

Here fishy, fishy,fishy....

This one got away, it's hard when you're helping the kids. I just found out that the salmon don't bite when they're running. You actually have to use your hook to snag them when the swim by. Dip netting seems to make more sense all the time.

The girls tried hard to catch a fish too...hmmm perhaps we should buy them a pole...

The water is this stunning shade of blue. I asked my husband once if it was because it came from a glacier. He just laughed at me... If you're laughing too then you're a much more logical person than me. If you don't get why everyone else is laughing...welcome to my world.

It's been hard for me to admit that I think it's beautiful here. I feel like I'm being disloyal if I say something good about Alaska. Perhaps in a small way I'm afraid that I'll like it...and that we'll stay forever like so many others do.

Okay, here it goes...I really enjoyed rafting the Kasilof River today. It was stunningly beautiful, and more fun than rafting the green river back home. This was our best trip so far.

Grandpa's New Ride

My Father-in-law is pretty excited about his new pick-up truck. He lowered his payment, and he even likes the color.
I was excited that he drove us out to Kasilof to go rafting.
-Thanks Grandpa!!!!!!

Wow an award! Thanks Chauntue'! I didn't even know they had blog awards.
I'd like to thank my sister-in-law Carly. She introduced me to the world of blogging. I new I needed something to feel connected to the people back home. This has really felt like a lifeline for me, a rather unexpected way of coping.

Here are the rules that accompanying this award.
1. Post the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who nominated you.
3. Nominate 7 other people for this award and add links to their blog.
4. Leave a message for the people that you nominated!

1. I nominate Carly, for being my blogging 1st.
2. Alison, for inspiring me with her blog.
3. Peggy, for her beautiful family videos
4. Lecea, for her stunning photography
5. Patty, because I can't get enough of her ultrasound video
6. Kudos back to Chauntue' for having such a spiritual blog (already a winner)
7. Shout out to Crafty Mandy for the most belly laughs (already a winner)

An honorable mention to The Kenai Ward Branch photography blog. It's private but it's one of my favorites.

And a welcome to my sister-in-law Jenine...it's her 1st day and I'm so excited! :)

Love you guys!

Tagged

Yikes I guess I'm it. Thanks Chauntue...beware of the things you may learn about me.
Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

1. I don't actually like fish very much. I'm really trying too because my husban wants to live on it. But I can have it once and then I'm good for a very long time. Fish every day is killing me, I'd much rather be eating crustaceans.
2. I love patterns. Number patterns specifically. I hope to pay bills on 08/08/08 so I can write that awesome date over and over. (it only happens once a year.)
3. Today I dipped my toe into the freezing ocean water. When I did I asked it if it had ever been to Hawaii....but it didn't answer me.
4. I love making lists.
5. I love the freecreditreport.com jingles. My kids ask me to rewind them over and over on the DVR, and I sing along.
6. Back to loving patterns, I like to do the same things over and over every day. Eat the same thing for breakfast, listen to the same song, I even tend to wear a certain outfit on certain days of the week.

Umm, I don't know how to add links. I hope this is okay!

Since I'm a new blogger (less than a month into this.) I don't have 6 people who haven't recently been tagged. Hope 4's okay!

Patty, Carly, Peggy, Alison, Lecea

The Reason I'm Here.

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I've been here for 3 & 1/2 weeks. In all the months that I prepared to come up here, I never really thought much beyond getting myself onto the plane. Can you believe that the world actually continues spinning after you leave Vernal?
That doesn't mean that seeing scruffy bearded men in hip boots skinning fish on their front lawn doesn't make me wonder how I ended up here. It surprises me greatly that after 10 years of saying Alaska is to0 far from home....suddenly I actually live here.
The good news is, that this is my husbands dream. Scruffy bearded me, hip waders, fish and all. Lucky for me I never have to look very for for the reason that I'm here.

To My Love: My life would be very different without you, but I wouldn't change it for anything. I love you Babe.

The Reason Why I'm Here.

Su Suit Tot Tub?

Faith really wants to go to Grandpa Wilson's and get in the hot tub. Our bath tub will have to do. She's trying so hard to put on her own "su suit"

Happy Birthday Faith! The Big # 2

Happy Birthday to our little artist. She turned 2 today and celebrated by putting up her own decorations.
This was kind of a hard day for me. In Vernal we would have had a large party with everyone in the family helping to celebrate. None of our kids have ever had a party without lot's of little cousins to help celebrate. I was pretty homesick.
Thank you to my husband and father-in-law for being there to make me smile and help make Faith's birthday fun. You guys made the day great, I love you both so much.
Time for presents. Rip it open Faith!

Thanks for your help opening my present Gracie!

The kids are all excited to finally have a toy in the house. Make your kids go 3 weeks without toys, and they'll LOVE anything you get them for their birthday!

Faith tried so hard to sit on the little seats that came with her Little People House. She just couldn't quite get it. :)

Faith doesn't say it's my birthday, she says "It's my Happy DooDay Cake!" Every time you tell her to say it she always puts cake on the end.

Happy Birthday Cake Faith!

The Cake.

Faith helped herself to her Birthday Cake....it's her cake.

Make A Wish & Blow out the Candles!

Happy DooDay Cake Fall Down! (This was not a good feeling!) I'm sorry sweetie!

Maybe she should have wished for Mom not to dump her cake on the floor.

The kids didn't seem to mind eating floor cake. (I'm glad we cleaned the floors!)

My husband couldn't help rubbing it in my face just a little bit.

Grandpa said it was fine, scooped it up and ate a bowl to prove it. Thanks Grandpa.

Happy Birthday Little Faith!

Walking In The Rain

It has been gray, rainy and cold all week. Apparently we are experiencing a record breaking cold streak this summer with only 6 days in the 60's & none in the 70's. A regular summer has 21 days in the 70's. Brrrrrrrr!

If it's this cold during the summer, then I'm going to be in trouble this winter.

Today we finally went out despite the rain. You can walk to this little trail, just down from our house. This is the 1st time I've been on it. The sky was gray, but the flowers were bright. I guess gray can be beautiful...I still wish the sun would come out.

Gracie loves to climb and to hang.

TJ wasn't so thrilled.

My very handsome husband.

Here we sit like bumps on a log...

Kiss me Daddie...

Guess who's Birthday is tomorrow? She'll be 2yrs old!

I bet no one is wearing their coat back in Utah. Happy July 24th everyone back home!!!! :)

Daddie doubles as a jungle gym.

You have to keep such a close eye on them Faith ran up to the edge and got within one step of going over. Luckily I was able to grab that little hood and snatch her back. After that I didn't let go of her.

This is How We Eat Now...

Our neighbor is an incredibly nice guy. When he saw that the kids were eating on the floor...he brought over a table for us to borrow. Pair it with Grandpas $1.00 a piece yard sale chairs and we're eating in style.
-Did you take time to be thankful for your table today? Our stuff is supposed to arrive 8/1/08. Holy Moly Cow! -That's a long wait.
This photo was taken at 10:30 PM -see how light it is outside?
Notice the new tile? Brent and Jean worked really hard on that...I think it looks really good.

Sunshine Blessed Sunshine.

Hallelujah! The sun finally came out, and it is almost warm. Get me out of this house!!!!!

Back home I'd be wearing shorts and a teeshirt right now.

The Salmon are Running.

It's finally clear enough to see the mountains on the other side of the bay. Saturday July 19, 2008

I was mistaken before, when I thought there were fishermen lined up on the beach to dip net.

Now the fishermen are lined up to dip net. This is the beach where the Kenai River runs out into the ocean. People jammed in for miles on both sides. The vast majority are Alaskans, there to harvest the salmon.

Salmon caught in a dip net.

If you thought I was kidding when I said their were fish heads everywhere...

Eeeew! Watch your step. The fish carcasses are piled high. Even the seagulls have eaten their fill. Did you spot the halibut? Upper right hand side nose touching the waves. I've seen a lot of dead halibut carcasses too, but I don't know why. Some of them have been filleted, some have not.

The Call

I was feeling pretty sorry for myself this morning when I woke up. The gray light filtering in, still no sunshine. I knew my husband would sleep all day, since he had worked all night. I would just be stuck in the house with the kids all day. I felt depressed and alone and I didn't want to get out of bed. When my husband came in he tried to cheer me up, but I resisted. I just felt like I had too much to be unhappy about. Then he told me about going to the hospital last night to photograph the body of a little one & a half year old drowning victim. (She was just a few months younger than my little Faith) Ashamed of myself for my needless self pitty, I turned to him to try and comfort him. He said there was no reason for this to have happened, maybe she was just called home. Imagining the unbareable grief of her parents, I felt a call too. A call to go to my kids and love them extra long and hard. A call not to take for granted the blessings that I have been given, but to be thankful for a day when all I have to do is spend the entire day alone with my precious children. May we always hear and answer that call....and never take another day for granted.

Our 10th Anniversary!

July 17 we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary to us! Grandpa took the kids and we got to go on a date, it was fabulous.
My husband says it only feels like we've been married for 5 minutes...under water. :)

Gone Fishing...or Fishing Gone?

We rushed out to the river eager to catch some more salmon, but nothing was moving. Finally we decided to go somewhere else.

The river bank is lined with fishermen, and the river filled with boats. We didn't really expect to see this many people...this is Alaska you know.

The mud along the shore is slick, sticky and terrible. Faith has dirty little feet after we're done fishing.

A shot of the Kenai River, right before it empties into the ocean. We haven't had sunshine for days, but the land is still picturesque.

We headed over to the Visitor Information Center in Soldotna. Please don't ever let me get this close to a living bears mouth!

Baaa.

The kids finally got to see a bald eagle. Or as Faith calls them, a "BaGeeGo." (That is also how she says sea gull. I think she thinks they are the same bird.) -For some reason we haven't seen any real bald eagles yet.

Here is the record holding 97lb salmon. (or something like that.) Anyway, it's huge...it looks like it could eat one of my kids for supper.

Beneath the Visiter Center, there is this walk way that is pretty cool, the stairs led right into the Kenai River.

Where are all the fish? Gracie wonders.

Tourist fishing was not my husbands cup of tea. The walkway is a little bit cooler in the middle of the night when no one else is around. So many avid fishermen and no one was catching anything.

At last someone caught a fish! The kids and I had a good time.